FeCamp, home of the Marcotte family

FÉCAMP

Fécamp : 36 km from Le Havre - Ville d'Art et d'Histoire.
Up to 1204, Fécamp was the official residence of the Dukes of Normandy, and the Trinity Abbey the chief place of pilgrimage in the region. As the abbey became richer, so the port developed, ending up as France's busiest cod fishing port.

The Trinity Abbey Church
A masterpiece of early Gothic architecture dating from the XIIth century, the abbey church of Saint Trinity has all the grandeur of a cathedral. It houses a large number of treasures, including the chapel of the Virgin Mary, with its XIVth century stained-glass windows, the remains of a XVth century rood screen and a large gilded wooden canopy dating from the XVIIIth century. Richard I and Richard II, Dukes of Normandy, were both buried here.

Church of Saint Etienne
All that remain of the vast building project undertaken in the XVIth century are the transept, apse and south portal. In the centre of the edifice stand a number of superb Renaissance columns.

The Ducal Palace
Opposite the abbey church, the remains of the ducal palace serve as a reminder of the links between Fécamp and the successors to Rollon, first Duke of Normandy. The site enables visitors to see what living conditions were like in the Xth and XIth centuries. Behind the abbey church, the old districts of the town testify to its rich past : visitors should not miss the XVth and XVIIth century houses in the Rue Arquaise and the Rue de l'Hôpital, or the XVIth century Hostellerie de la Fleur de Lys, in the Rue des Forts.

Arts Centre Museum
The arts centre has a number of quite remarkable works on show in a former private mansion surrounded by extensive wooded grounds.
Ground floor : large collection of Rouen earthenware. rare collection of baby's feeding bottles dating from Antiquity to the present day.
First floor : the ivory exhibition room. There are also religious art works from the Trinity abbey church and XVIIIth and XIXth century paintings of the French school.
A reconstruction of a typical interior of the Caux region has been built under the eaves.

Nova Scotia and Fishing Museum
For more than a century, Fécamp was in effect the capital of Nova Scotia. This museum is intended to illustrate Fécamp's long seagoing history, emphasising its traditional links with the fishing industry.
Ideally situated on the sea front, this museum recounts the tale of Fécamp fishermen, who used to sail to the Nova Scotia cod banks.

Benedictine Palace
In 1863, Alexandre Le Grand, wine dealer and keen art collector from Fécamp found an old book of spells dating from before the French Revolution. Amongst other recipes contained in the book was a highly mysterious one mentioning an elixir invented by Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a Benedictine monk who lived during the Renaissance period and spent some lime at Fécamp Abbey. Alexandre Le Grand patiently deciphered the precious formula, in which myrrh was mixed with juniper oil, saffron with lemon peel.
The Benedictine Palace is visited by more than 140,000 people each year, who are attracted by :
- A collection of religious "objets d'art" dating from the XVth and XVIth centuries, displayed in a succession of neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance rooms, just as they were at the beginning of the century.
- The distillery, in which the famous liqueur is made
- The art gallery.